Benefits of CPQ & Retail Lending: Accurate Pricing, Efficient Process 

Homeowners wanting to remodel their kitchen. A warehouse looking to install a new HVAC system. A property management company seeking to contract a pest control company. In all of these cases, it’s likely that each sales representative worked out pricing for their potential customer using CPQ. 

What Does CPQ Stand For in Business? 

CPQ stands for “Configure. Price. Quote.” Most often referred to by its abbreviation, CPG is a software tool that helps businesses quickly and accurately provide quotes for products or services. 

Benefits of CPQ for Retail Lending & Professional Services

CPQ has benefits for businesses of all kinds, including retail/wholesale and professional services companies. 

Close Sales Faster With a Streamlined Solution 

According to data from Salesforce, business development representatives only spend about 34% of their time selling. This is because the other 66% of their workdays are filled with creating quotes, generating proposals, and other related administrative tasks. 

When your sales teams are spending less time on manual processes, they can spend more time selling, nurturing current relationships, and developing new business. With CPQ, quote approval time decreases significantly, as does the duration from quote to close. 

Increase Sales With More Accurate Quotes

Manually quoting complex products and services is not only slower, but it also can lead to incorrect prices, a misconfiguration, or a mistaken discount. These inaccuracies can create a barrier to a sale or result in a lost customer. 

Salesforce, in the report mentioned above, found that businesses using CPQ saw a 35% reduction in configuration errors and a 38% reduction in pricing errors. Additionally, sales forecasts rose in accuracy by nearly 30%. 

Increase Bottom Line With a Leaner Process

At the heart of most important business decisions is ROI: Return on Investment. With quicker quote-to-close times and more efficient processes, CPQ boosts your bottom line.  Earning potential increases when you are able to provide finance options.

Boost Revenue by Integrating CPQ, CRM, and Lending Management Systems

Earlier we mentioned three business scenarios:

• Homeowners wanting to remodel their kitchen. 
• A warehouse looking to install a new HVAC system.
• A property management company seeking to contract a pest control company.

Each of these quotes, all which include a range of variables, are likely to be for high-ticket items or longer-term service contracts of significant value. Offering financing or installment payment plans could be an ideal business strategy. 

CPQ software programs have been around for many years, but most of these platforms don’t have lending or billing options built into their products out of the box. This means if your company or organization wants to offer financing on the products or services you’re quoting, you’ll need to use a separate system. That’s where a solution like IvyTek Finance comes in. 

IvyTek Finance starts where CPQ finishes 

Built on the powerful Salesforce CRM platform, IvyTek Finance allows companies to streamline quoting and lending by integrating their CRM with not only CPQ software, but also a complete financial services solution. This opens up companies to additional revenue streams.  

By integrating your CRM and CPQ with a loan management software product like IvyTek Finance, you can boost sales by offering a financing solution for a product/service a customer otherwise would not be able to afford.  For example, a local furniture retailer generates a quote for a custom living room furniture set configuration; by listing a financing option, the dream sofa-loveseat-table combo could look much more within reach when seeing the monthly price vs. a total purchase price. 

Aside from boosting sales, this integration is good for all business units. With an end-to-end solution, internal workflows become streamlined: marketing teams, sales teams, customer service teams, and accounting teams can collaborate together on business solutions. 

There are so many examples of using CPQ for financing in retail and professional services; let’s share another one: 

CPQ & Lending Use-Case Example: Service Contracts

The pest control company example we listed earlier was more than hypothetical: IvyTek Finance worked with Terminix, the international pest control company, to create a streamlined estimate and financing solution for its commercial division. Already using the Salesforce platform for its CRM, Terminix was able to use that foundation to launch a more efficient approach to closing sales and collecting payments.  

Companies in need of pest control can request a free estimate online (or by phone) and using a selection of variables — such as type of business and number of locations — Terminix will then automatically configure, price, and quote a service contract. Taking things one step further, a secure and compliant credit application can also be completed and a payment plan generated.

On August 5, 2021, Terminix issued a press release about its second quarter earnings, which included double-digit growth in its commercial pest control services. This quote from CEO Brett Ponton demonstrates the company’s commitment to its growth includes investing in technology solutions. 

“Investments in easy-to-use systems will improve lead generation, customer retention, and the customer experience across all touchpoints,” he said. “Terminix Way will transform the teammate experience with enhanced operating procedures… that will enhance teammate retention and provide the foundation for accelerated growth and improved consistency throughout the organization.”

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From lead generation to closing and sale and from loan servicing to gaining repeat business through marketing, it’s a wise investment to integrate your CRM with a robust lending management platform. 

The IvyTek Finance team would be happy to show you how our complete loan management software and Salesforce’s CPQ can work hand-in-hand to boost your bottom line. Contact us for a free demo.